New mysteries: Murder, mayhem and mixtapes

Two New York murder mysteries, a vanished Brazilian novelist, and a foster child adopted by the government — Charles Finch returns with a look at the latest mysteries and thrillers.

The Ex

By Alafair Burke

Harper, 283 pp.

3 stars out of four

“When I say good-bye, I mean it,” the jaundiced New York defense lawyer Olivia Randall tells us. Except: what about an ex-boyfriend accused of murder? That’s the hook of this enjoyable legal thriller by Alafair Burke, a former prosecutor and the author of the reliably solid Ellie Hatcher series. Olivia feels guilty because she left Jack Harris’ life in shambles after college; when he’s accused of murdering three people, she agrees to take on his case, sure at first that he must be innocent. An alert reader will tie several important clues together very early on, and the book’s first 200 pages are slow. But as the story progresses it becomes a better, faster read, and there’s a great and satisfying surprise in Olivia’s personal life. In the end The Ex is probably similar to the episode of Law and Order that she falls asleep watching late in the book: proficient, a little patchy, not wildly memorable, but worth the time.

'Orphan X' by Gregg Hurwitz(Photo: Minotaur)

Orphan X

By Gregg Hurwitz

Minotaur, 368 pp.

3 stars

If you fed a sophisticated computer the collected adventures of Jason Bourne and Jack Reacher and asked it to produce a thriller, the resulting book would probably look something like Orphan X. The invincible, solitary hero in this case is Evan Smoak, weaponized from early childhood by a shadowy government program — before revolting, deciding to leave field work and become an anonymous vigilante, deploying his skills on behalf of the public good. The government, of course, is displeased with that plan. Hurwitz handles all of the beats of his familiar story with assuredness and skill, from the bone-crunching fights to the fetishized weaponry to the ambiguously motivated love interest. But there’s nothing raw or weird or textured in his tale — only a streamlined masculine consumer confection, as smooth and numbing as the artisanal vodka Evan likes to sip.

'Ways to Disappear' by Idra Novey(Photo: Little, Brown)

Ways to Disappear

By Idra Novey

Little, Brown, 258 pp.

3 stars out of four

This debut novel, by a distinguished poet and translator, never quite coheres into a vision greater than its individual moments — but its individual moments are exhilarating. The story concerns a Brazilian novelist who has vanished, Beatriz, and two women, the author’s ardently admiring American translator and her far less dazzled daughter, who search for her. Novey’s scattershot plotting is reminiscent of Paul Auster in his weaker tales, with madcap gangsterish encounters suddenly producing, unconvincingly, real and terrible consequences. But she offsets that fault with moments of sly, lovely writing, many of them exploring the nature of a translator’s odd invisible art, and in Raquel, Beatriz’s hard-bitten daughter, she has created a heart-rending portrait of the price someone always ends up paying for genius. A writer to watch.

'The Big Rewind' by Libby Cudmore(Photo: William Morrow)

The Big Rewind

By Libby Cudmore

William Morrow, 256 pp.

3 stars

A hipster cozy! That’s a pretty irresistible idea, and Libby Cudmore’s debut novel delivers on it — her broke Brooklynite heroine, Jett, moves in a world of impeccably cool vegans, wine drunk out of Pokémon glasses, and Psychedelic Furs songs, all the while, in the most hipster gesture of all, disdaining her fellow hipsters. The author’s anatomization of this milieu is a joy, funny, precise, and self-deprecating; the story at play, beginning with Jett’s discovery of her neighbor’s corpse and hinging on a mysterious mixtape, is a little shakier, unfortunately. Worse yet is a painfully over-telegraphed love connection between Jett and a blandly idealized friend, Sid, which takes scene after endless scene to develop. Still, voice precedes craft for many excellent writers, and when Cudmore’s sense of pacing and characterization catch up to her wry worldview, she’ll be a powerhouse.

Charles Finch writes the Charles Lenox mystery series. The latest is Home by Nightfall.